What You Can Do to Reduce Stress

by Reji Mathew, PhD

Stress management is an essential
skill set for coping with a
cancer diagnosis. Taking the
time to learn how to manage stress can
yield invaluable benefits; it can build
your emotional resilience to buffer the
ups and downs of treatment, boost immunity,
and help you stay connected to
what is meaningful in your life as you
go through medical care.

What is stress management?
It
is your ability to manage, both practically
and emotionally, the effects of
difficult experiences. In each person’s
life, stress can come from two main
sources. The first is “outside-in” (situational),
referring to problems in life
domains such as social supports, living
situation, work environment, or financial
pressures. “Inside-out” (personal)
is your particular sensitivity to unexpected
emotional or physiolological
strains that may require more energy.

Since stress
is often under-recognized
and
seldom treated,
it is important
not to wait until
you are stressed
out to seek help.
Planning for
stress with a
wide range of
tools can help
you cope with, tolerate, or alter a stressful
situation, which in turn, can build
a sense of hope and empowerment.

How do you exhibit stress?
As a
first step in building a stress-management
self-care plan, it is important to tune in
to how you exhibit stress. When you
become stressed, what are the signs?
Do you experience anxiety, headaches,
or insomnia? Do you feel overwhelmed,
irritable, isolated, or depressed?

In addition, understanding the stress-distress
connection is critical, as the
coping skills may differ for each. In
other words, you may get through the
acute distress of cancer treatments successfully,
but even when you are not in
acute distress, you still have to deal with
the everyday challenges of your life.
Everyone needs two sets of skills in
their personal stress-management plan:
skills for managing acute distressing
episodes and skills for handling the
daily stressors of life.

Identifying Your Needs
The foundation
of every stress-management plan
starts with the basics: regular sleep,
good nutrition, and exercise. Matching
the right stress-management technique
to the right need is the next step. Stress
reactions can take the form of a wide
range of emotional or physical sensations.
Moreover, each stage of cancer
treatment has its specific challenges.
At diagnosis, you may need social
connection as a de-stressor; during
treatments, you may need soothing
interventions to alleviate fatigue.

Answering the following questions
can help to better articulate your stress-management
needs:

What do I need help with in my
daily routine?

If I need to release stress, what is
the best way to do it, and how often?

What is my level of energy right now;
what technique is accessible and doable?

What kind of stress outlet do I
need – emotional, physical, spiritual,
or sensory?

Talk with your doctor, counselor,
or family supports and plan a mix of
techniques in your personal stress-management
plan. Here are a few
suggestions to help you get started:

Pacing and Energy Conservation
If you are experiencing fatigue or low
energy, try breaking tasks down into
parts, and ask for help if needed. Set
priorities, and plan for active rest.

Emotional Support A cancer diagnosis
can trigger all sorts of complicated
feelings. Setting up emotional outlets
is critical. Common sources of support
can be support groups (in person or online);
expressive arts (such as music, art,
and journaling) for emotional release;
meeting with a counselor; and scheduling
time with friends.

Physical Relaxation Doing what you
can to exercise and to relax your body is
important. Meet with a physical therapist
to create a modified program.

Mental Relaxation Anxiety is a common
stress symptom most people with
cancer have to contend with. Planning
for “mental breaks” daily or weekly
can help keep your stress at a manageable
level.

Finding an Anchor
Finally, while going
through your cancer treatments, it
can be helpful to ground yourself with
something that anchors you – a spiritual
practice, prayer, positive thinking
– so the focus of your life is not limited
to the cancer experience.

The skills you discover in managing
your stress during illness will stay with
you long after cancer treatments. Once
you adopt this model into your life, you
may find you look forward to using it,
and perhaps even enjoy experimenting
with new strategies for stress management
as a resource for lifelong wellness.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Dr. Reji Mathew is a health
advocacy writer. The focus of her work
is to promote coping-skills education for
people with chronic medical concerns.
Her clinical expertise is in integrative
psychotherapy, particularly cognitive-behavioral
skills training. To learn more
about stress and coping, visit her website,
rejimathewwriter.com.

This article was originally published in Coping® with Cancer magazine,
September/October
2010.